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‘Oasis’ or ‘McMansion’? Oak Bay home on golf course selling for whopping $9M

Should it be selling for more than an oceanfront Oak Bay house?
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Greater Victoria housing sales have been dropping faster than the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference, but that hasn’t stopped some sellers from shooting for the moon with their prices.

The latest is an Oak Bay home at 501 Newport Ave. that is on sale right now for an eye-popping $9 million.

But is that seller just dreaming?

“Welcome to your very own oasis,” reads the real estate posting.

Located on the Victoria Golf Club, this custom-built house is 9,000 square feet and has seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms on .5 acres.

“With a gated entrance to a roundabout driveway this home is private and quiet” – although people from the golf course and next door and see right into its backyard.

The house also has a rec room and a sauna.

Is this actually an oasis, or is this a McMansion that looks like most new builds?

Compare this with another Oak Bay home that’s actually selling for about $250,000 cheaper. It’s located at 249 King George Terrace (scroll below to see a photo of it). This house is actually larger than the Newport one and also has its own giant swimming pool.

Even more than that, it’s .80 acres and sits on the edge of a cliff with stunning ocean views – features that usually demand the highest price. (One note is that this house was actually assessed at $11.6 million in 2022, but is selling for just under $9 million.)

The King George house has been on the market for nearly half a year and recently reduced its price so perhaps the market is telling sellers of mansions a little something.

The Victoria real estate market continues to crater – hitting sales that are being called as the “slowest” January in area history.

A total of 278 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this January, 41.4 per cent fewer than the 474 properties sold in January 2022 and a 13.1 per cent decrease from December 2022, according to VREB data.

Sales of condominiums were down 46.3 per cent from January 2022 with 101 units sold. Sales of single family homes decreased 33 per cent from January 2022 with 120 sold.

“If you’re looking at the statistics, this January was one of the slowest we’ve seen on record,” says 2023 Victoria Real Estate Board chair Graden Sol, in a statement.

A total of 320 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region in December 2022, 26.9 per cent fewer than the 438 properties sold in December 2021 and a 16.7 per cent decrease from November 2022. Sales of condominiums were down 38.2 per cent from December 2021 with 94 units sold. Sales of single-family homes decreased 24.6 per cent from December 2021 with 156 sold.

A grand total of 6,804 properties sold over the course of 2022, 32.3 per cent fewer than the 10,052 that sold in 2021. The 2022 sales came closest to 2014’s sales year when 6,698 properties were sold.

There were 1,688 active listings for sale on the Victoria Real Estate Board Multiple Listing Service at the end of December 2022, a decrease of 20 per cent compared to the previous month of November but a 158.9 per cent increase from the 652 active listings for sale at the end of December 2021.

RELATED: Cavernous mansion with 3 kitchens selling for $10M as Victoria real estate craters

Do you have a story tip? Email: chris.campbell@blackpress.ca.

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Chris Campbell

About the Author: Chris Campbell

I joined the Victoria News hub as an editor in 2023, bringing with me over 30 years of experience from community newspapers in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
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